


Sleep Deprived

by This_ape_writes



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Drabble, Lead up to their first time, M/M, cursing, nothin graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 17:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9335957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/This_ape_writes/pseuds/This_ape_writes
Summary: --Now let me tell you, when you think you are 100% alone in your room and you see another set of eyes staring back at you it is absolutely ok to scream and dive to your feet as you back pedal into your pillowcase and fall unceremoniously on your ass, taking the only lamp you have in the whole house down with you in a bang of darkness. --Or:  Jim has been stealth sleeping in Bones' bed for a week without being noticed.





	

The working schedule of a medical resident doesn't make one good god damned bit of sense and you can quote me on that. 

Now before you start in on reasons that it is the way that it is, save your breath because I get it. Doctors need to be able to function no matter what the circumstances are and tossin' people in the deep end of that is one way of acclimating them, I understand that. But putting people in literal life or death situations on purposely planned, sleep deprived, 48 hour shifts is stupid. 

But what do I know. 

I'm just a doctor, not the one in charge of making the rules in the world. Not that anyone would listen to me even if that WAS my job. 

God. What an awful job that would be. 

Can you imagine?

What was my point...

Oh yeah. Sleep deprivation. 

I remember counting down the days for my residency to be over. To have a real practice. To be able to sleep every night like a real live human. 

So of course the second that finally happened, actually if we're being literal and exact, the fucking FIRST WEEKEND that became a thing, all hell broke loose and I found myself on this idiotic new path. 

Where I find myself, once again...sleep deprived. 

Between academy classes like xeno-who-the-hell knows or history of some-kind-of-shit, and picking up shifts at the clinic to make some cash I feel stretched to my absolute limits. 

So it's no wonder I've been a little bit distracted. 

My one redeeming grace is my beautiful, one entire months salary, king sized, ultra plush, worth every damn penny, mattress. 

 

I didn't even bother with a frame or box springs. Just the mattress itself and it's amazing. 

My second year in I was finally granted access to living in a single apartment on campus. 

Perks of being old and overly educated already I guess. 

Actually how it really is, is that they figured they were already getting a return on their investment in me since I was actually doing the job they were pretending to train me for so the trade off for dirt cheap labor was a second floor studio apartment that let me pick my own furniture. 

Which wasn't half bad. 

It meant I could say goodbye to a twin mattress made of what smelled like old socks and felt like it was stuffed with plastic grocery bags and hello to king sized heaven. 

But a nice mattress was only good if you used the damn thing. 

And recently that hasn't been the case. 

It was just that the last two or so weeks I've been scheduling things a bit excessively. 

And I know it. 

But I don't want to admit why. 

So I just don't.

Instead I'm just gonna keep pushing so my days blur together. I remember nothing but a steady stream of cheap cafeteria coffee followed by cheap hospital coffee. Sometimes I find myself standing in a classroom with no memory of actually having walked there only to blink and find myself asleep in my clothes in the oncall room at work. 

 

So the fact that Jim managed to be sleeping in my apartment without my knowledge for over a week isn't all that shocking. 

Fact is it probably would have taken me much LONGER than that to realize what was going on if it hadn't been for Melanie Straten's ill conceived foray into cooking hash browns from scratch on her hot plate in the apartment next to mine. 

Sweet girl. 

Brilliant engineer. 

Shit cook. 

So at two thirty seven on Friday night after pulling a 24 hour shift, my blissful coma like sleep was interrupted by blaring fire alarms through the wall. 

They shut off almost as soon as they started but it was enough to jolt me awake and when I commanded on the lights I found myself staring into another set of eyes. 

Now let me tell you, when you think you are 100% alone in your room and you see another set of eyes staring back at you it is absolutely ok to scream and dive to your feet as you back pedal into your pillowcase and fall unceremoniously on your ass, taking the only lamp you have in the whole house down with you in a bang of darkness. 

The string of cursewords are ok too. 

Even after all that my brain was still telling me I needed to defend myself only to tell me, 'shit we don't know how to do that', and then tell me on repeat with a new surge of adrenaline 'hey good going dumb ass this is how we're going to die'.

Jokes on you it wasn't dying in the air like you thought. 

It was flat on your back on solid fucking ground. 

But before I can give up entirely, the soft blue light from a nearby PADD fills the apartment and the set of eyes speaks. 

"Shit. Bones. I'm sorry. You've never woken up before...". 

Which was at the exact same moment the best and worst thing I could have heard. 

"Dammit Jim why are you in my bed?" I yell up at the ceiling as I let my hand drop with a hollow thud against my stomach and lay catching my breath, on the floor. 

"Bones are you ok? You're not hurt are you?" he asks as he crawls across my bed and peers down at me. He reaches down and grabs ahold of my wrist and I let him yank me up until I'm sitting and I glare at him but let him pull me back into my bed. 

My bed. 

"You didn't answer me Jim," I say as I crawl back under the covers and sit with my arms draped over my knees. He sighs and clicks the PADD off sending us back into the dark. 

"I needed to sleep is all Bones. I'm sorry I freaked you out." 

"Jim I'm not mad you're here." And he snorts at that. "I'm not mad. But dammit man giving me a heads up you were sleeping in my bed would have been the cordial thing to do." 

"Bones I'm sorry but I felt stupid asking," Jim says as I hear him lay back down. 

"Hang on. Earlier when I was trying not to die of a heart attack. Did you say I'd never woken up BEFORE?!" 

"Shit. I'm sorry," Jim says. 

"Jim how often are you sleeping in my bed without me knowin'?" I ask in what dissolves into a laugh. 

"It's just been this week I swear," he says. 

"All WEEK? Jim it's Friday! That's been five nights." 

"Six. Actually. I crashed on Sunday too, Bones look I'm sorry," he says in a rush as he rolls over toward me. 

"Stop apologizing Jim it's fine. I don't understand it. It's a little weird. And I sure as hell am questionin' how on earth I didn't notice, and thinkin' I really need to sleep all damn day tomorrow if I've been so sleep deprived I missed THAT!" 

"We've both been running ourselves ragged," he mutters. "I figured it was better to sleep a few measly hours here than not at all in my place." 

"Well," I say as I lay back down with a sigh and curl around my pillow. "I can't say as I blame you. This bed is pretty comfortable." 

I hear him huff out a small laugh. 

"That's not why I sleep better here. And I really hope you know that." 

I don't know that. 

He knows damn well I don't know that. 

What does that mean? 

"The HELL does that mean?" I ask. 

"Nothing," he says. 

Which is the stupidest word in the English language and Jim uses it all the fucking time. 

And I usually let it be the end of our conversations because I'm a coward and I don't like pressing people to talk. Especially not if there's a chance they'll use it against me to get ME to talk later on. 

But I'm tired dammit. 

And I ain't thinkin' as clear as I should be. 

So I fold my arms around my knees and I try to keep talking. 

"Is it because it's quiet here?" I ask. 

"What?" Jim asks. 

"Quiet. Is that why you stay here?" I hear the sheets rustle and I can just barely make out Jim's silhouette as he shifts over onto his elbow. 

"Bones you talk in your sleep and your neighbors are probably the most disruptive people in the world. Did you miss the fire alarm just now? How on earth do you call this place quiet?" Jim laughs. 

"So it's darker than your place then?" I ask. 

"Not really."

"It's cooler?" 

"No..."

"Warmer?" 

"No! Why are you asking me stupid things?" Jim asks. 

"Well why the hell are you here if it isn't my mattress?" I ask. 

"You!" Jim blurts out and then laughs. "Jesus, Bones I sleep better because of you alright? You happy? God." And I can hear him and feel him roll away from me. 

Oh. 

Wait. 

What? 

"What?" I ask. 

"Don't make me talk Bones just...just go back to sleep." 

I struggle to sit up a bit, propped against my elbows and I reach out to hit the Jim shaped lump next to me with the back of my hand. 

"No way, you scared the shit out of me. I ain't seen you in almost two weeks in the waking world and I now find out you've been stealth sleeping in my bed with me for half that time I think I deserve some damn answers." 

A pillow rises in the air that I can just barely make out in the dark and it drops down again. It must have landed over his head because now his words are muffled when they reach my ears. 

"Bones go away," he says. 

I sit up completely with that and reach over and snatch the pillow away from him and that earns a startled ,'Hey' thrown at me and a frantic grab at the air but I'm quicker than he is and I wrap my arms around the pillow so he can't snatch it back. 

"Go away? This is MY HOUSE!" I yell. 

He groans. 

"Jim. Why have you been avoiding me," I say changing topics. 

"You know why," he groans again. 

"Wait. Hang on. Do you REMEMBER kissing me?" I ask piecing small things together. 

"Ok we're done now. You've made your point I'll go back to my place," Jim says as he sits up. 

But nope. That's not gonna happen. I reach over and grab at him blindly and manage to grab his shirt. He tries to pull free but I wind my fingers up in the fabric and yank and to spite his now wild flailing it does no good. He's stuck. 

"Bones!" He says. "Don't rip this it's my favorite shirt!" 

"Then stop thrashin' around and sit still!" I say. The sigh he spits out is dramatic and annoying but he stops moving and sinks, deflated back against the bed. "You've been avoiding me because of that?" I ask. 

"You've been avoiding me too!" Jim snarls. 

"Not...exactly. That was a biproduct of needing outta my own head and working too much to get there." 

"You mean you haven't been avoiding me because I freaked you out and you needed to get the fuck away from me?" Jim spits out with too much anger. 

"No. I was afraid you didn't remember it. That was much, MUCH worse..." I admit. 

For a few seconds neither of us moves. 

It's quiet. 

I can hear us both breathing. 

And then suddenly I feel Jim move just a tiny bit and I flinch when the PADD lights up the room again. 

He's looking at me with a frown on his face that says 'cut the crap you are so full of shit' but he doesn't say anything he just frowns. 

His eyes narrow just a tiny bit and he opens his mouth. 

"I wasn't that drunk. I knew exactly what I was doing..." he tests. 

I narrow my eyes back. 

"So you kissed me. You knew you were kissing me. And then what...you changed your mind and decided to ignore me?" I ask. 

"I didn't change my mind. And I'm in your bed right now I hardly think that's ignoring you," he says. 

"But I didn't know you were here," I say. 

"Because I'm a needy bastard that's also an unbelievable coward. It that what you wanna hear?" he asks in an even tone as he stares at me. 

"Yeah...kinda," I say as I let myself grin. "Can I get that recorded for future reference?" 

"Oh fuck you Bones," he says. But his lips are twitching. 

I just raise my eyebrow at him. 

"Tomorrow's Saturday," I say. 

"It is..." he says. His eyes narrowing down further. 

"I don't have work or classes. Do you?" I ask. 

"Hand to hand sparring in the morning but I can ditch it..." he says slowly. 

"Ok then I accept," I say. 

His frown gets more confused. 

"You accept what..." he asks. I shrug. 

"Well you just said, and I quote, 'fuck you Bones'. I usually like a bit more romance than that but I'll take what I can get with your cowardly ass. So go on. What're you waitin' on? An engraved invitation?" I say. 

And I am so glad he decided to turn on the PADD for ambient light because the wide eyed look of shock that passes over his face as his jaw drops open and his eyes frantically blink, is a look I will remember on my death bed. 

"Is that a joke?" he asks his eyes still wide and wild. 

"No. It might be a challenge but it sure as hell ain't a joke," I say. 

And I didn't quite prepare for what hit me. The PADD slid off the bed and clattered us back into darkness and I had the wind knocked outta me just a bit as my legs bent at an odd angle and I found myself flat on my back with my head hanging just slightly off the far end of the bed. 

Fingernails scratch up the side of my neck 

My hair is being yanked. 

A hand is clawing at my side. 

Ow, he BIT me!

And good lord. 

He's devouring me alive. 

It's amazing. 

So when he stops I almost let out a very undignified whine but he chuckles. 

"Challenge accepted," he growls in my ear.


End file.
